Non Solus was a publication of the Friends of the University of Illinois Library, published from 1974-1985. The Non Solus Blog was established in the summer of 2010 to continue the work of Non Solus in the digital realm, and to highlight the collections and share news.

“This Never Fails if Rightly Done”: Cookery and Curatives from Regency England

A pop-up exhibit at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
11 December – 22 December 2017
Curated by Katie Bergen

The Regency era is a time often remembered for its glittering balls and the amusements of high society. These aristocratic pleasures have been canonized in literature that remains popular to this day, including works by Jane Austen, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Refreshments such as those in these cookbooks displayed in “This Never Fails if Rightly Done” would have been served between sets as merrymakers and dancers caught their breaths and took the air.

“This Never Fails if Rightly Done” will be on display from December 11 to December 22, 2017, and explores how these manuals showed that household management was both a matter of moral and spiritual importance, as well as a way to delight the palate and enrich the senses.